Total PC Gaming was a monthly magazine published by ''

Imagine Publishing Imagine Publishing was a UK-based magazine publisher, which published a number of video games, computing, creative and lifestyle magazines. It was founded on 14 May 2005 with private funds by Damian Butt, Steven Boyd and Mark Kendrick, all we ...

'', launched in 2007 it ran until March 2010. The magazine featured videogame industry news, game reviews, hardware reviews, and sections dedicated to fans of ''

retro gaming Retrogaming, also known as classic gaming and old school gaming, is the current playing and collection of obsolete personal computers, consoles, and video games. Usually, retrogaming is based upon systems that are outmoded or discontinued, alt ...

'' and ''

Massively multiplayer online game A massively multiplayer online game (MMOG or more commonly MMO) is an online video game with a large number of players, often hundreds or thousands, on the same server. MMOs usually feature a huge, persistent world, persistent open world, alt ...

''s.

Staff

The staff included editor Russell Barnes, who had been at the helm since issue 2, as well as Games Editor Ben Biggs, who wrote a blog on the magazine's website, Sam Bandah, who ran the Letters page and designer Andy Salter. Stuart Campbell regularly freelanced for TPCG and wrote the monthly "Why I hate PC gamers" column for issues 3-12. Freelancer David Crookes produced a monthly two-page interview with many big names and some old school PC content was also taken from past issues of Retro Gamer. Freelancer James Pikover produced monthly hardware reviews, as well as the 2008 holiday gift guide special.

Review scores

''Total PC Gaming'' scored games reviews out of ten, and only two have achieved a perfect score, ''

Fallout 3 ''Fallout 3'' is a 2008 action role-playing game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. The third major installment in the ''Fallout'' series, it is the first game to be developed by Bethesda after acquiring ...

'' and ''

Grand Theft Auto IV ''Grand Theft Auto IV'' is a 2008 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the sixth main entry in the ''Grand Theft Auto'' series, following 2004's '' Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas'', and the ...

''. The lowest score was 2, which is jointly held by ''The Dark Legions'' and '' Soldier of Fortune: Payback''.

Format change

When the title was launched, one of the main selling points was that there were no extras attached to the magazine, thus keeping the price (£3.99) lower than the competitors, ''

PC Zone ''PC Zone'', founded in 1993, was the first magazine dedicated to games for IBM-compatible personal computers to be published in the United Kingdom. Earlier PC magazines such as ''PC Leisure'', ''PC Format'' and ''PC Plus'' had covered games but ...

'' and ''

PC Gamer ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games ma ...

'', who both retailed at £5.99 and were sold in a sealed plastic bag that included a DVD that contained extra content. However, with the release of issue 11, Total PC Gaming had changed to match this format, and had raised the price to £5.49.

The end

On 20 March 2010 a letter was sent out to the magazine's subscribers stating that issue 31 will be the final issue. No reason for the closure was provided. Imagine Publishing director Damian Butt told MCV: "Imagine Publishing can confirm that following a period of review it has decided to close Total PC Gaming magazine with immediate effect. All staff have moved onto other magazines within the company. The website www.TotalPCGaming.com will continue to run as part of the NowGamerNetwork. Issue 31 will be the last to be published. "The support from our advertisers and readers has been fantastic and it's always a shame to close a magazine, especially one that is still profitable, but following the widespread delisting of PC games magazines from many magazine-selling outlets, we felt that the team deserved to be working on projects with greater future potential. "We are currently deciding whether to continue to run a regular digital edition of the magazine on our popular global iPhone/iPad platform."

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://web.archive.org/web/20100326045555/http://www.totalpcgaming.com/ (archived) Home computer magazines Defunct computer magazines published in the United Kingdom Monthly magazines published in the United Kingdom Video game magazines published in the United Kingdom Magazines established in 2007 Magazines disestablished in 2010